"Arthur…"

"I don't…" Arthur hardly opened his eyes. "Believe in…magic…"

"Arthur?"

Arthur opened his eyes a little bit more to try and see clearly. He wasn't in the room with the tubs. He was in the room with the bed, his arm attached to the bed post. He blinked a little more to focus his sight, and he saw a familiar face in the doorway. He had to blink a few more times in order to make sure he saw what he saw correctly.

"A-Al…fred?"

"Oh, my God…" the figure ran up to him and hugged him, even though he was lying down. To be honest, it hurt. Arthur winced, but he couldn't bring himself to make a noise. "Hold on," Alfred's voice said as they separated. "I'll get you out."

"I-I can leave?" Arthur asked. He felt his arm get unlocked and Alfred lifted him so that he was sitting upright and hugged him again. Arthur was too exhausted to even try to keep his head upright.

"Yeah, you can leave," Alfred said happily. "God, I'm so happy you aren't dead."

"M-Me, too, I guess…" Arthur muttered.

"Come on," Alfred stood up and helped Arthur to his feet. Arthur was barely able to stand correctly. They started walking and Arthur had to watch his feet to make sure they were moving correctly. He hadn't walked in so long, it felt weird. He was practically leaning all his weight on Alfred to do it right.

"H-how long…?" Arthur tried to focus, but walking took too much of his attention away.

"Five days," Alfred said, a little sadly. "Some stuff has happened while you were gone."

"Right…" Arthur blinked. He didn't know where he was going and his feet were tripping over themselves.

"Are you…okay?" Alfred asked.

"No," Arthur shook his head. Alfred stopped and Arthur noticed that it was oddly dark where they were. "Th-th-this is a…a dream…right?"

"No…" Alfred gave him a soft smile. "This is real, I promise."

"I'm not…insane anymore?" Arthur asked. A door opened in front of him and he was moved inside. He sat on a soft cushion, softer than his bed, anyway, and Alfred sat down next to him.

"You were never insane," Alfred brushed some of the hair out of Arthur's face.

"Thank you," Arthur muttered. He let himself fall over to the side, his head falling on Alfred's lap. He curled up into himself. It was warm in here. Alfred was warm. "Where are we?"

"A carriage," Alfred informed.

"Lovely," Arthur muttered and his eyes fluttered closed.

"Wake up," Alfred's voice said kindly. Arthur slowly opened his eyes and he was still in the same spot as he was when he fell asleep. So it wasn't a dream…

"We stopped?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah," Alfred said. "We're home, at the castle."

"Lovely," Arthur muttered and he tried to sit up, but he couldn't do that. Eventually, Alfred helped him up and he leaned against the door of the carriage.

"Do...do you want me to carry you in or something?" Alfred asked tentatively.

"No," Arthur shook his head. "I-I'm the Queen...I can walk."

"Are you sure?" Alfred asked.

"Of course I'm-" Arthur tried to stand, but he didn't even go an inch off his seat before he fell back down. "Why..."

"You're just tired," Alfred said reassuringly, patting his shoulder. "I think I really should carry you in."

"No..." Arthur shook his head again. "I...I have...pride..."

"Of course you do," Alfred sighed. "I'll be right back, I got an idea," Alfred said and then he disappeared from the carriage. Arthur sat there, alone, for a second, before he came back in and Arthur felt the carriage moving.

"Where...?"

"The back," Alfred stated. "So, I can carry you in and no one will see. I really don't want you to overwork yourself just as you got back."

"Thank you," Arthur smiled slightly and leaned on Alfred's shoulder. He was so comfortable...

"No problem," Alfred said kindly. Before long, they stopped moving again. "Stay there, I'll just go around the other side to pick you up, okay?" Arthur nodded and Alfred disappeared again. He soon popped up around on the other side and quickly, yet calmly, picked Arthur up by his back and the crook of his knees. When they got outside, it was still dark and Arthur shivered. It was cold.

Alfred walked calmly for a while, or it seemed like a while to Arthur, he had forgotten how to keep track of time by now... But they eventually went through another set of doors and Arthur looked around. It was lit by candles, made of stone... It looked familiar...kind of like home...

"Lucky for you, I know where your room is from here," Alfred laughed slightly and Arthur smiled.

"Very lucky," Arthur nodded slightly. "Thank you."

"No problem," Alfred smiled down at him. They walked for a while in more or less silence. It was weird, Arthur didn't remember Alfred wanting to keep quiet very often...

"Alfred? You're back, aru?" an unfamiliar voice asked, but Arthur didn't try to look at him. "Aiyah... Arthur?"

"Wh-who are you?" Arthur finally turned his head to look at him, but he didn't really look very hard. He didn't care quite enough...

"I am Yao," the man said politely. "I am your Jack, aru."

"Right, then," Arthur nodded. "Jack?"

"Yeah, I found him," Alfred said. "I couldn't really do my job as King without help, so I used his clock to find him."

"King?" Arthur looked back to Alfred. "...Right... Forgot..."

"He looks ter-" Yao started, but Alfred stopped him.

"I'm gonna get you some sleep," Alfred said and quickly stepped past the new Jack and they continued their way down the hall. Arthur stared absentmindedly at Alfred the whole way.

"Thank you, love," Arthur muttered randomly after a while.

"L-Love?" Alfred glanced back down at him. "Since when do you call me Love?"

"I've wanted to..." Arthur stated. "For a while..."

"Why?" Alfred asked and Arthur laughed slightly. Even with his sleep deprived mind, he thought he was being obvious.

"And here I thought it was obvious," Arthur muttered. With all the strength he could muster, he leaned forward slightly and moved his hand to touch Alfred's face. And he placed a small kiss on Alfred's lips before he leaned back down.

"O-Oh..." Alfred muttered and then let a small chuckle out. "Right..."

"Sh-should have told you s-sooner..." Arthur shook his head.

"No," Alfred smiled. "You're timing's pretty good. To be honest, the last I saw you, I wanted to tell you the same thing."

Arthur smiled softly. He knew that, under normal circumstances, he would be blushing like an idiot. But he was just so cold, he was pretty sure that there wasn't enough warmth left to make his cheeks red.

Soon, they came up to a new door and Alfred opened it, leading them to go into a new, darker room. An insect came up to Arthur's ear, making a shocking racket. So Arthur swatted it away. It didn't go away, though. For some reason, he couldn't see it… He frowned when it went to his other ear.

"What's wrong?" Alfred asked.

"Bug…" Arthur muttered and the buzzing immediately stopped. The insect finally let him alone for some reason.

"Here, I'll set you down for a sec so I can move your sheets," Alfred said. Arthur felt himself get set down on something really soft. He waited there, not trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness. He was just so cold and tired… The insect came back, with a few others buzzing around Arthur irritably.

Soon, Alfred picked him up again and he was carefully set back down on the soft surface, on his back this time. Something really warm was set over him and he immediately clung to it, as if for dear life.

"Okay," Alfred lightly rubbed his head, moving his hair around slightly. "I want you to rest until you feel 100 percent again, got it?" Arthur nodded. "Please don't try to get up when you think you're all better. I want to make sure you're okay."

"Alfred," Arthur muttered. "I understand."

"Good," Alfred sighed. And then Arthur felt a pair of lips carefully rest on his forehead for a second before disappearing. "I'll visit in the morning, promise."

"Okay…" Arthur curled up more into the sheets of his bed. He heard the door close and the insects were buzzing louder, but that was easy to ignore as sleep was about to overtake him.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, though, Arthur let out a horrible, body wracking cough. The whole thing made Arthur's stomach hurt and he winced at the pain of it.

He blamed it on the water treatment before he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Alfred silently closed the door to Arthur's room, feeling slightly guilty for leaving him alone, but he did have to sleep…

"Aiyah…poor Arthur, aru," Yao muttered behind him.

"I…I didn't expect him to be this bad…" Alfred muttered, looking down at the ground. He leaned against Arthur's door, letting out a sigh. "Wh-when I heard that he would be let out…I just figured…he'd be fine…"

"That's not how it works, aru," Yao sighed. "I've read on asylums…"

"What the hell do they do?" Alfred demanded, looking up at Yao.

"Not good things, I'm afraid," Yao shook his head. "I'm sure Arthur is just weak, aru."

"He's gonna be okay, though, right?" Alfred asked.

"When he wakes up…probably, aru," Yao muttered.

"I heard Arthur is back!" a voice said hurriedly and Alfred saw someone race around the corner and immediately grabbed hold of Alfred's arms, staring determinately in his eyes. It was Francis.

"Uh…yeah…" Alfred mumbled. "But, he's sleeping. You can't see him."

"Mon dieu…" Francis let go and turned to facing the ground.

"I-I thought you left with the other Kings, Queens, and Jacks," Alfred said.

"When I heard about Arthur's predicament, I had to stay," Francis sighed. "He is going to be alright, right?"

"Um…" Alfred didn't know how to answer that.

"Most likely, aru," Yao cut in.

"You are the new Jack, non?" Francis asked.

"Jack Yao," Yao nodded.

Alfred leaned against the door again, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He honestly didn't know what to do anymore… If Arthur didn't turn out to be okay…

"Alfred!" Alfred was jerked out of his thoughts by Francis waving a hand in front of his face.

"Huh?" Alfred managed out.

"You are worried about him, non?" Francis asked, chuckling slightly.

Alfred didn't trust his voice enough to speak, so he just closed his eyes tightly and hung his head. He could feel himself shaking. He had never felt this way before. So…helpless… He couldn't do anything to help, all he could do was wait. He was never good at that…

"You really do love him, don't you…?" Francis muttered. Alfred shakily nodded.

"Arthur has been his only thought since they took him away, aru," Yao said.

"You really are the King of Spades," Francis mused.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Alfred muttered, finally looking up.

"You will understand soon enough," Francis patted his head and started walking off. "Now, do tell me when I can see mon cher again."

"Right…" Alfred mumbled as he watched the King of Diamonds walk off.

"If we are done here," Yao stated. "Arthur's family is here. We should probably talk with them, aru."

"Right, sounds good," Alfred rubbed the back of his head and followed Yao to Arthur's family.

And Arthur's back! Yay! Alfred got to sort of be his hero! And, if anyone didn't catch it, the insect flying around Arthur's head was Ella. Earlier in the story, I had Francis think Ella was a bug because he couldn't see her but she was still nearby. So, yeah, a little bit of sad explanation for you... Anyway, the important thing is that Arthur is safe...Or is he...?

Um, review, please! It's awesome and I'll love you forever!

I don't own Hetalia and I never will